Web's Best Artisan Bread Recipes

Artisan bread recipes aren't the sole domain of professional bakers. Home bakers can use these recipes to create wonderful home-baked artisan bread.

Artisan baking is the process of creating the crusty, European-style breads that we usually find only in bakeshops and fine restaurants. Think crusty ryes, sourdoughs, pumpernickel, baguettes, olive bread, brioche, and much more.

Tip: for crispy crusts, use as little additional flour as possible while kneading.

Purists tell us that authentic artisan recipes contain no ingredients other than flour, salt, water and yeast. Even greater purists would argue that the yeast should be replaced with a starter, such as is used in sourdough bread.

Tip: Artisan bread recipes require that part of the process be done by hand.

One of the secrets of turning out professional artisan bread lies in using a dough-rising basket similar to the Frieling Oval Brotform Bread Mold 10.5" x 7". You'll get bread with deep ridges and a dusting of flour around the middle, same as you'll find in a European bakeshop.

Check the links at the bottom for top-notch recipes for artisan bread.